Today, we visited Golubac, a medieval fortress that is said to have never been conquered. Its strategic location allowed it to control all the roads and waterways in this area.
We had a great time wandering the ramparts and climbing the different towers.
Later in the day, we sailed through the Iron Gate Gorge, where the Danube carves its way through limestone cliffs with Serbia on one side and Romania on the other.
The stunning scenery included this isolated monastery right on the river. The Mraconia Monastery dates to the 15th c. but had to be rebuilt in the 1990's to protect it from rising waters resulting from the construction of a hydroelectric plant.
The most ancient sight in the gorge is the Roman Tabula Traiana plaque honoring Trajan, but unfortunately, it was covered in scaffolding.
We did get a decent view of the riverside sculpture of King Decebalus the last of the Dacian Kings in what is now Romania. This recent sculpture, completed in 2004, is the largest rock sculpture in Europe and required the efforts of twelve sculptors working for over ten years to create it.
In the afternoon, we had a very interesting tour of the wheelhouse with Captain Vlad. The ship can handle any weather with windshield wipers for rain and radar and GPS for fog. The ship can even move sideways. And this whole wheel house can be lowered as needed for bridges with low clearance.
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